Abstract

Seminatural grasslands are among the most biodiverse habitats in Europe, and they have great conservation value. However, in recent decades, they have been threatened by either intensive fertilization or afforestation or, conversely, by abandonment due to changes in agricultural practices. The impact of management, its frequency or intensity on seminatural grassland communities is traditionally evaluated through views on the composition of communities and their diversity. A better understanding of the functioning of plants in managed grassland ecosystems could be achieved by considering plant functional traits (PFTs). In this study, we investigated whether sites with different management practices differ from each other in terms of the representation of the main PFTs. We studied a permanent plot series of 30 grassland sites in central Slovakia that had been managed or abandoned for over 10 years. Individual management consisted of low-intensity mowing (MGM), medium-intensity grazing (MGP), and abandonment (MGA). Hemicryptophytes, perennials, and semi-rosette species were dominant under all management regimes. We found significant differences in the coverage of the studied PFTs among the sites managed by phytomass removal (mowing, grazing) and abandoned sites. Compared with the MGA sites, mowed and grazed sites were characterised by high proportional coverages of species with medium plant heights (0.3–0.6 m), rosette species, and graminoids. The MGA sites presented high coverages of species with high plant heights (> 0.6 m), competitors, phanerophytes, forbs, geophytes, species with vegetative and seed reproduction types, species with long flowering periods (3 months or more), and species with summer green leaves. The MGM sites supported species with large seeds (seed mass > 2 mg), reproduction type by seed (seeds), and species with short flowering times (1–2 months), whereas the MGP sites supported species with small plant heights (plant height < 0.3 m) and species with persistent green leaves. The communities of submontane Carpathian meadows with different types of management differ in terms of the representation of selected plant functional traits, especially between managed and abandoned sites. This approach is useful not only for understanding the mechanisms involved in the application of different management methods but also for predicting changes in the responses of the functional properties of plants when abandoning grassland habitats.

Addeddate

2025-04-23 17:40:47

Bhl_virtual_titleid

210922

Bhl_virtual_volume

v.56 (2024)

Call number

10_3897_natureconservation_56_137276

Call-number

10_3897_natureconservation_56_137276

Foldoutcount

0

Genre

article

Identifier

plantfunctional56divi

Identifier-ark

ark:/13960/s2qrd7pm9nf

Identifier-bib

10_3897_natureconservation_56_137276

Identifier-doi

10.3897/natureconservation.56.137276

Ocr

tesseract 5.3.0-6-g76ae

Ocr_detected_lang

en

Ocr_detected_lang_conf

1.0000

Ocr_detected_script

Latin

Ocr_detected_script_conf

1.0000

Ocr_module_version

0.0.21

Ocr_parameters

-l eng

Page_number_confidence

0

Page_number_module_version

1.0.5

Page_range

181-200

Pages

20

Pdf_degraded

invalid-jp2-headers

Pdf_module_version

0.0.25

Possible copyright status

In copyright. Digitized with the permission of the rights holder.

Ppi

300

Source

Nature Conservation 56

Year

2024

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